Villas Fawakay

Mr & Mrs Smith have just returned from a review trip to this boutique hotel just outside Marrakech, and just as soon as they've unpacked their silks and spices, a full account of their stay in Morocco will be with you. In the meantime, just to whet your wanderlust, here's a swift snapshot of Villas Fawakay…

Amid an unexpectedly lush patch of greenery 15 minutes outside the Marrakech medina, the three sandy stone buildings that make up Villas Fawakay offer a sun-soaked oasis in the midst of a dusty desert landscape. Inside the three villas – which you can rent in their entirety or on a room-by-room basis – you find classic Moroccan decor, sensitively updated with bright feature colours, big sexy drapes and intriguing antiquities.

The villas are the creation of owners Dawn and Francis, who live on site and are always on hand to offer their guests personal attention, whether that’s organising a day’s horseback trekking in the mountains or simply mixing a cocktail at the poolside bar.

Although there’s plenty to do in the area (including classes in Moroccan cookery from the in-house chef and a mind-boggling roster of day trips to the Atlas mountains and around), Villas Fawakay is very hard to leave, even for a few hours. After all, when you can dine and drink wherever you like amid the olive trees and pottering peacocks, and the atmosphere around the sun-trap poolside is so sweetly soporific, why bother moving?